The Bishop of the UGCC Benedict (Aleksiychuk)
In the case of creating a Unified Local Church in Ukraine by Greek Catholics will put pressure, suggests Bishop Venedikt (Aleksiychuk).
Ukrainian Greek Catholics are deeply conscious and they won’t join the “Tomonau of the Church.” Reported about it in interview “to Katolicismu Ogledaju” Bishop Venedikt (Aleksiychuk) managing the eparchy of St. Nicholas of the UGCC center in Chicago.
According to him, in the future will attempt to gather all under one roof with the sign “the one Ukrainian local Orthodox Church”.
“The Greek Catholics of Ukraine – this is not a small part of the people of God, – said the representative of the UGCC. And they seem to fit under that sign, because they were Ukrainians and most of them nationally conscious. It is not known how to shove them back, and whether to shove them”.
Bishop Benedict is convinced that the Ukrainian Greek Catholics were acutely aware of their identity and they “scent smell, something’s wrong.”
“Fears that the alleged Greek-Catholics will go to Church Tomonow greatly exaggerated. Do not think that there will be pressure on the Greek Catholics. I think”, says the Archbishop of the UGCC.
The Bishop also stressed that the Greek Catholics would have to accept possible future Tomos “from a position of searching unity not only within Orthodoxy in Ukraine, but, moreover, from the perspective of searching for the Unity of the whole Church of Christ.”
As reported by the SPM, 17 APR 2018, the head of the UGCC Sviatoslav Shevchuk met with Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of USA in Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, and stated that it “appreciates all efforts for the possible recognition of a unified Orthodox Church in Ukraine by the Patriarchate of Constantinople,” because it’s “out of isolation” of the UOC-KP and the UAOC. And stressed that this is only the “first step” towards the restoration of unity between the Greek Catholics and the Orthodox.